[Regia-NA] Learning Old Norse

[Tracie Brown]

Some other Old Norse course sources and resources:

Old Norse for Beginners on-line course:
http://www.hi.is/~haukurth/norse/
with an associated Yahoo group:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/norse_course/?yguid=2884567
The lessons are in the files section, and the links section includes some useful links (and some useless spam).
The Old Norse for Beginners site includes some Mp3s to help with pronunciation. These can only represent a pretty good guesstimate of original pronunciation, since no one thought to get out the  tape recorders when the Vikings came to visit.

Another good resource for learning Old Norse is the Old Norse Network.  Sometimes it gets picky and turgid, but it's still a good place to get questions answered.  You can join the list if you want, or just read the archives.
http://www.mun.ca/mst/ONNarchive/

A page of useful information and links for learning Old Norse:
http://has55.www9.50megs.com/OldIcel/LearningOldNorse.html
Note: I didn't check all the links to see if they were still valid, but the ones I checked were.  As the keeper of this page suggests, when you find something interesting, print it out or otherwise save it -- it could be gone tomorrow.

I was lucky enough to have two years of classes in Older Germanic Languages, which included a whole year of Old Norses. (There's not just one Old Norse, there's Old Icelandic, Old Danish, etc. ) We used Gordon's An Introduction to Old Norse, which has been widely used in university classrooms for the better part of a century. Do NOT run out and buy it (yet). It's not very useful for teaching yourself Old Norse, though when you have some knowledge of Old Norse you may find it useful. It's in most university libraries, and you can get it (and any number of other interesting books) via Inter-Library Loan at your local public library.

Now, do I actually remember much of the Old Norse (or Old Frisian, Old English or Gothic) I learned mumblety-something years ago? Nope. Maybe it's time for a refresher course.  WOuld anyone else be interested in going through an on-line course as a group? (After Pennsic, of course.) Us Viking types  can learn Old Norse, and the Saxons can learn ... whatever it is Saxons speak.  (See the Old English Aerobics page: http://www.engl.virginia.edu/OE/OEA/index.html  )

-- Signy